Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with web and domain

Technical/legal questions about a site that will parody a trademarked brand

Riki tiki — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:59:14 -0800

I'm thinking of creating a political parody website that may step on some toes and/or trademarks. I have a few technical and legal questions about how best to go about this. So I had an idea for lambasting a prominent political party in the United States. I was shocked to find that a really obvious domain name for that party was available, but it may infringe upon a trademark for that party.

I know YANAL and YANML, but a little guidance as to the prudent first steps here would be appreciated. I would assume (but correct me if I'm wrong) that free-speech protections of satire and parody may protect me from some of the trademark issues. But I also sense that those lines may become fuzzier if I ever appear to draw a profit from the site. Is there anything I can do to reasonably ensure that my site is on firm legal ground without the cost of consulting an actual attorney?

On more of a technical level, does anyone know of a good hosting company that could be relied upon to keep the site running even if they got big scary letters on legal stationery from that political party?

This idea is still in the brainstorming stages, so I'm probably imagining a bigger future for it than will realistically happen... but I'd rather be overprepared than underprepared.

Researching website options

titanium_geek — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:03:04 -0800

Researching options for all things website: hosting, domain name registration and DNS. Can you help me narrow it down? Hello Mefites, this is my first ask.mefi question. I'm writing a report for a 'professional writing' course. We will be assessed on the quality of the writing, not the content.

Scenario: you say "I would like a website for my small company."
I say: "Well, you need content (I have this covered), a domain name, and hosting."

What do I say next? I know I can google web hosting providers, but there are lots! What are the good and/or popular companies out there?

I have on the list already: GoDaddy (my own domain bought through them, looking to change.)
nearlyfreespeech.net
mediatemple

These are companies I've seen mentioned on my journeys around the web, but I'd like more recommendations please.

prox.ie registration

bbuda — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:17:11 -0800

Registering a .ie domain for personal use; any 'workarounds' to the registration restrictions? I'm looking to register an available .ie domain for personal, non-commercial use. Unfortunately, I don't think that I meet the restrictions spelled out; I don't have any connection with Ireland, nor is it a trademark that I'm trying to protect. I'm wondering if there are any reliable workarounds to these restrictions; agents or other organizations in Ireland that will do a proxy registration that are able to meet the requirements. Thanks!

(previously, but doesn't quite answer this question)

What's the story behind those filler pages you see when you look at unused domain names?

jeisme — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:29:33 -0800

What's the story behind those filler pages you see when you look at unused domain names? I always enjoy looking at the faux-websites that pop up when you type in a domain name that is apparently owned but not actively used ( see, for example, www.ipotty.com or http://www.poppoppop.com) .
Their combinations of computer-generated text and stock photography are often laughably bad, and I can't imagine ever actually confusing one for a real site. What's the story behind these? I'd guess they're put up by domain name squatters to generate profit from unused sites, but I can't seem to find out anything else about them. Who makes them? Are people actually making money off of them? Why are there so many different designs and formats for them?

When registering a domain name, should I pay - annually - to hide these details from the Whois database?

Kirn — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:16:22 -0800

When registering a domain name, should I pay - annually - to hide these details from the Whois database? I'm in the process of registering 2 domain names (with fasthosts.co.uk/ukreg) and have been presented with the following option:

Hide your contact details for this domain
£4.99 pa per domain
Activate domain privacy to stop these contact details being displayed in the publically-accessible WhoIs database.

£10/year isn't a massive amount of money, but it isn't nothing. Should I tick this option? Do people, generally? Do you? What am I getting by doing it, and what am I risking if I don't? Is there a serious risk of identity fraud? (FWIW, the domain names I'm registering would both have my full name in them.)

Thanks!

Looking for web host that's hospitable.

aristan — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:18:10 -0800

I need an inexpensive ($20 or less a month) webhost that allows multiple domains and Movable Type installations and can handle OK & occasionally large traffic... I've gotten dugg 3 times! Any suggestions? I've had the same host for all my domains for several years now. I picked them because at the time they were cheap and offered better service than my previous host. But sadly, the service has gone down hill.

They revamped their help system about 2 years ago and I have never been able to log in. So, when I need help with anything, I have to submit thru their contact form and it gets flagged as "low priority". They've never been able to explain why it doesn't work nor have they ever bothered to fix it.

I had the previous experience where I found that my site and several others stored on the same server had been hacked and basically I had to repair it myself. No idea how long that had gone on. And now, I tried to log into movable type on a few of my domains and none of the installations work. I get 500 error codes for most of them, but on my main domain, I get "scgiwrap: Caller must be the nobody user" and I have no freaking clue what that means.

So, I'm finally tired of it all and I want a new webhost... but since it's been roughly 6 years since I've shopped for one... I don't know what is a good price or what I should be looking for... anyone want to help me out?

Here's what I want:

- Inexpensive, I currently pay $20 a month & want to keep there or lower
- Multiple Domains, I currently own 8 domains and host via a reseller account. I'd like to either get a reseller account (in case I want to rent out some hosting, as I have done before) or host all of them from one account (making it easier on my nerves!).
- The ability to install Movable Type, I currently host several blogs and have another one in the works. I enjoy movable type and would like to continue to use it. So I'll need to be able to install it... and have it work at least every once and awhile.
- The ability to install Vanilla. I use Vanilla for a forum site (ok... it's a WoW guild. I'm a nerd.)
- The ability to survive a Digg, a BoingBoing and a Mefi-ing all in one day. I have been dugg 3 times, boingboinged a couple, got a mention in the Advocate (from Elijah Wood no less) and one of these days I dream of getting a mention in the Blue... I can dream, can't I? I need a webhost who can survive it.
- Features at least similar to what I currently have: 2.5GB of storage, 45GB of monthly transfer, unlimited emails & ftp accounts, MySQL, PHP, etc etc. I'm looking for close, but I can survive with a bit less if need be.

Help me become a web savvy mogul superstar! (on a budget) :)

miss lynnster — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:49:00 -0800

I'm about to start some new business ventures and my current web host has not been doing a very good job so I want to switch while things are still small. Helllp! By this time next year I plan to have four business websites up and running. (Right now I have one site and two domain names, so I'm planning on doing a lot of work this year.) Recommendations on how to keep this virtual growth as painless, smart and profitable as possible so that I can focus on the work itself, not on damage control with my host. (I've spent three hours on the phone with them this week alone because I haven't been getting my e-mail. They're just awful.)

Here are the sites I plan to set up:
1) I own the domain. My current design site features my resume, portfolio, and room to ftp client files. In the future I'd like to develop that ftp area to be a separate password-protected client area.
2) I own the domain. I need to redesign my old jazz vocalist website and launch that within the next two months. (I don't want MySpace to be where my main web presence is, so please don't suggest that. I need my own domain with MySpace as a minor supplement that points to it.) Although I don't plan for mine to be so Flash-heavy, the content of this site will be similar to this, and should eventually include an area to purchase CDs.
3) Domain needs registering. A new business site set to launch within 3 months, probably no more than ten main pages with one form questionaire page. There might be a variety of photo galleries added over time.
4) Domain needs registering. Probably utilizing a blog template, this site is an online community startup to launch in a year or so, the timing to be dependent upon how the new business progresses (they're tied together). This could end up being a huge and very successful project down the road with a great deal of income potential, but only time will tell. For at least four months, this domain will be a blank canvas waiting for paint while other things get accomplished first.

So here are my questions:
A) What host would you recommend for hosting these four sites (with room to grow)? I want to be sure that the prices are reasonable and don't become cost prohibitive as my businesses grows and traffic increases. I've heard dreamhost is good but when I tried to contact their customer service for an estimate they didn't e-mail me back. I figured that was a bad sign so I gave up on them.
B) My previous domains were registered with Network Solutions. I know I probably don't want to register the new names with them. Should I go through the new host or how do you recommend I register the names? (I already know what they're going to be so I need to snatch them up asap while they're still available.)

Okay... advise away!!!! Thank you in advance for your help. :)

What's up with my website?

attercoppe — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:09:06 -0800

Why does my web page work with a www prefix and not so much without? I have a domain and hosting account with GoDaddy. My "site" currently consists of only one page with my Google calendar displayed. If I direct a browser to www.myaddress.info, it works fine; if I go to myaddress.info, sometimes it works, but sometimes I get a partial - just the frame from around the calendar and my name. It doesn't seem to be consistent, browser-specific, or have to do with changes to my GCal.

Any thoughts? Anything I can do, or is it a fluke on the hosting side - slow/bad DNS propagation or some such? Should I fiddle with DNS redirection via my GoDaddy account to simply redirect the sometimes-working address to the always-working one?

Registrar w/ bulletproof mail redirect?

skywhite — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 06:18:24 -0800

Registrar w/ bulletproof mail redirect? For several years I have been content with service on my dozen domain registrations with my old registrar, but no longer. I recently registered a .com domain and created one email redirect and one webmail account but neither work. I had to hunt on the registrar's site for the contact-form and never received an automated email with a ticket number. (UPDATE: finally got an automated email this very minute.)

I'm looking for a registrar which offers superlative mail forwarding. I don't really need webmail or hosting or spam protection -- just rock solid redirect from a registrar who isn't going away and has a good reputation. I'm currently paying US $15/year per domain (a mix of European and American domains) -- offering 5 webmail accounts and 1,000 redirects per domain, and I would be willing to continue to pay in that range.

easy setup email hosting

andrewzipp — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:36:16 -0800

I need to move a domain name, and set up email hosting for 200 addresses, with minimal downtime. I could do this through Dreamhost, but they're asking to have every single name entered in separately. Is there an email host that can set these up in bulk? I don't need web mail, just a new POP3 address.

Buying a .org but not the .com

Plutor — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:50:01 -0800

It is a commonly held belief that enough Internet users foolishly expect every Internet domain to end in ".com", it would be a mistake to purchase and promote a domain ending in ".org" unless one can also purchase the corresponding domain in the ".com" TLD to redirect these foolish Internet users to the proper URL. Is there any statistical evidence that there are so many foolish Internet users out that that this is a necessary practice? Or is this merely unsubstantiated myth?

How does one make an offer on a domain name?

The corpse in the library — Tue, 01 May 2007 09:29:26 -0800

I want to buy a domain. It's already taken, but isn't being used. I am ignorant when it comes to these matters. Please advise. A company called sedo.com comes up when I visit the site I want. Sedo.com says the owner wants $600 for it, which is just plain ridiculous. There's a place for me to make a counteroffer, or sedo.com could be the broker for $69 (which also seems ridiculous). According to the statistics on the site, there have been only two visitors this month.

Should I just give up on the domain? It's one I really, really, want, but I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars for. Or if I do make a counteroffer, how much should it be?

How do I manage two domains on the same hosting package?

rocketman — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 18:42:43 -0800

I'm new to editing .htaccess files, and I'd like some help managing multiple domains on one hosting package. I'm trying to setup a website for my wife - she's registered her own domain, and I offered to host it for her. But I can't for the life of me figure out how to get both of our domains to resolve on my hosting package.

As it is, my website (let's call it www.foo.com) is up and running. I want her domain (let's call this one www.bar.com) to resolve as that domain - all I can seem to figure out to do is set up bar.foo.com, which is not what I want.

I *think* this requires editing the .htaccess file, but I can't for the life of me figure out what I'd need to do. I can pay my web host to do this, but they're just going to put a frame around my wife's site and pull in content from a subdirectory, which seems unelegant and somehow backwards.

So - how do I get two domains running on one share of webspace? Thanks in advance

Google Apps for anyone, at my domain?

Mwongozi — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 14:15:19 -0800

Google Apps for Domain-style service for non-organisations? I own a domain and want to offer Google Apps style services (mail/IM/calendar/hosting etc.) to people using that domain. Google Apps would be perfect except that it's restricted to "organisations" in one "location". (You need to answer at least those two questions when you sign up.)

I would rather let people sign up for these services at my domain on their own, without restricting where they're from, and preferably without me having to manually create accounts.

Can Google Apps do that? (I'm guessing not from the signup page.) Are there other services that offer similar things at a domain I own?

I'm not necessarily looking to make any money out of it.

Domain Name Purgatory

BigBrownBear — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 01:37:59 -0800

Domain Name Purgatory: I cannot change the nameservers on a domain I purchased despite the fact that I'm paying TWO companies for it... ...here's the deal:

I purchase a domain several years ago from 1&1. I saw a 5-year special with Yahoo so I purchased it from them as a transfer.

I had never transferred a domain name before and I thought it was automatic. However, 1&1 charged me again. I asked why they were doing it and they told me that a domain could be registered with two companies.

I told them to cancel it, that I had it registered with Yahoo. They said ok.

Finally, I am getting around to using the domain but yahoo says I need to change the name servers at 1&1 to point to them. 1&1 tells me that I can't change the name servers because the account is cancelled and that yahoo should change the servers.

I've been emailing both companies for three weeks and both are insistent that they can't do anything and that the other needs to fix it.

Meanwhile, I've paid BOTH of them and I can't use to domain.

I admit that this is my fault for not handling the transfer properly but how do i fix this?

How do you purchase a domain name which is already registered but not being used?

bradn — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 11:43:01 -0800

How do you purchase a domain name which is already registered but not being used? My client would like to purchase an additional domain which is already registered. The site is currently a Network Solutions placeholder page. I have looked up the Whois and found the contact information for the owner, which appears to be forwarded through NS.

Is the best way to just contact the owner and make an offer? How to you handle the transfer?

International Domain Registration

Knigel — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 16:11:58 -0800

Domain filter - - > Help me find an international domain register that will sell me my last name for cheap and not some rate for a large business. My last name has been taken by all of the normal ( .com .net .org .etc ) and I am wishing to set up a site for my family in the style of firstname.lastname.whatever. I have searched through a bunch of the registers but they seem to be set up for businesses and not individuals; I cannot spend $500 for a year. If anyone has any suggestions, I would be very thankful. I hope this post proves helpful for future seekers as well.

Domain Name Prices

falameufilho — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 12:24:22 -0800

Why are there places that charge you $35 dollars a year for a domain name (register.com, netsol.com) while there are others that charge you as low as $7 dollars a year for a domain (godaddy.com, namesecure.com)? What's the catch?

Stopping the blog spammers

bamassippi — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 13:08:24 -0800

I want to start a Wikipedia page featuring the domains of blog spammers. Does one already exist?

Smallest Webhosting Requirements Ever.

Jimbob — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 03:29:18 -0800

Where can an honest man find a free place to park his domain for a while? Due to dire financial constraints, I can no longer afford web hosting. However, I don't want to lose my domain, and want to keep it pointing somewhere for free, and host about 20kb of data to put together a page explaining to people what's going on. My site doesn't get huge amounts of traffic.

Where's the best place to do this? Googling for free webhosting, as you might expect, doesn't provide me with much useful information. Who offers this service, and who can be trusted not to dissapear / fill my site with horrendous pop-up ads for internet optimizers?

How do I make Network Solutions and Typepad work?

nthdegx — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 05:13:48 -0800

Please please please can someone help me make my Network Solutions registered domain map to my Typepad site? When attempting to follow Typepad's instructions for setting up domain mapping with a Network Solutions registered domain I receive the warning that "An A record already exists for the entered Alias". Has this anything to do with the domain presently pointing to a Network Solutions under construction page? Has anyone experience with using Network Solutions and Typepad that can offer advice on getting domain mapping to work? Any DNS monkeys care to volunteer to fix this for me? I'm that sick of it I'm willing to pay someone at this point as I'm not really getting the answers I need from either party.

How to handle multiple domains on one hosting account?

arrowhead — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 22:06:21 -0800

I plan to purchase a few domain names, and each domain would show a different web page when visited. How can I manage that without subscribing to a separate web hosting package for each domain? It's only one web page per domain, so I'd like to look at a viable solution instead of buying multiple web hosting packages.

.ca domain hosting?

Mitheral — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 10:06:45 -0800

Recommendations for Canadian domain registration and hosting? I'm going to register a .ca domain or two for personal use (small home page, email forwarding and some assorted images that I can hot link). Of course I'd like to do this on the cheap. I'm considering Register4Less as they have yearly .ca registration plus limited hosting for $25. Anyone use these guys? Anyone else I should check out?

What should our non-profit's domain name be?

DakotaPaul — Thu, 12 May 2005 14:57:15 -0800

Our non-profit group is setting it's first web site, and we're having some trouble deciding on a domain name. Our group's name is fairly long, e.g. Some Generic Organization Name, so somegenericorganizationname.org is a bit unwieldy. Since sgon.org is already taken, we were thinking of getting sgonblah.org (where blah is a word related to what we do).

We want to get both domains, and have sgonblah.org redirect to somegenericorganizationname.org, our "official" address. But that got me to thinking: if I want to put our email addresses on the site, things like info@somegenericorganizationname.org are pretty long. But then people might wonder why info@sgonblah.org has a different domain than the address in their browser's location box.

Or, are we going about this backwards? Should sgonblah.org be the official address, then redirect the long one to it in case someone assumes that’s it? We're all brand spanking new to this web hosting and domain stuff, so I thought I'd ask the experts what the etiquette is. Thank you!

Fake contact info in domain registration?

bondcliff — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 08:35:30 -0800

Is there any good reason why I can't put a fake address and phone number in my domain registration info? I registered a domain a couple of days ago and I just got a call from some company asking if I needed help designing my new site. I don't need spam calls, thank you very much. Then there's the issue of privacy. I'd rather not have the entire word know my name and address. I might want to say something snarky about somebody some day.

I know there are ways to get a private registration or I could just rent a P.O. box, but both of those options will cost money.

The site is a personal blog. I can't see any reason why anyone would need to contact the administrator or the technical guy, both of which are me. As long as I list a valid email address I can be contacted. Will I be violating the US Patriot Act if I list 1234 Doody Ave, Bonerville" as my address?